Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, involves drilling deep wells and injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to break up rock and release natural gas.

Numerous studies find that fracking is linked to a wide variety of negative health outcomes.

For example, a 2016 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that asthma sufferers who live near wells where fracking is used are up to four times more likely to have an asthma attack than those who live farther away.

Other research has connected proximity to fracking to pre-term births and lower birth weights, respiratory and skin irritation, and increased hospitalizations in neurology, oncology and urology.

Fracking is also associated with water and air pollution, as well as earthquakes.

(B) PURPOSE—This law is enacted to protect the health and welfare of state residents.

SECTION 3. FRACKING PROHIBITED

After section XXX, the following new section XXX shall be inserted:

(A) In this section, “hydraulic fracturing” means a stimulation treatment performed on oil and natural gas wells in low–permeability oil or natural gas reservoirs through which specially engineered fluids are pumped at high pressure and rate into the reservoir interval to be treated, causing fractures to open.

(B) A person may not engage in the hydraulic fracturing of a well for the exploration or production of oil or natural gas in the state.